Bank Of Uganda Fails To Defend Teefe Bank Takeover Again

Bank of Uganda officials appearing before parliament's Committee of Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (COSASE) failed to defend the central banks decision to close Teefe Bank in 1993.

The committee inquiring the collapse of seven commercial banks also learnt that Teefe was closed down on irregular government orders by then finance minister Johoash Mayanja Nkagi, now deceased.

At the previous meetings with COSASE, Bank of Uganda officials failed to provide an inventory report leading to the closure of Teefe. The central bank's director for supervision Tumubweine Twinemanzi is reported to have said it doesnt exist before later providing on the third appearance.

But in his report, Auditor General, John Muwanga noted that the documents that had been presented as inventory reports of Teffe Bank were actually Examination reports because they didn’t meet the criteria of inventory reports.

The inventory required according to the auditor general should contain assets and liabilities of Teefe Trust Bank at the time of its liquidation in 1993, but the documents presented were only pre-liquidation assessments.

COSASE Chairperson, Abdu Katuntu asked Bank of Uganda if the Central Bank carried out any valuation of the assets of Teffe Bank at the time of the takeover.With MPs questioning how the Bank couldn’t establish if the evaluation was done, Bernard Ssekabira who was then a banking officer at BOU asked for more time to cross check in the Bank archive.

Ssekabira explained: “These things happened 25 years ago, many of these people weren’t in charge of the Bank. I request we are given an opportunity to go back and craft this process. It would be better to sit in office, gather information from the archives.”

Katuntu then asked the Central Bank to come along with all the officers holding office at the time arguing, “The law requires any public office holder to account even when they aren’t in office. Can we have the people or responsible officers who were in those offices to help us answer this query?”